


The Last Temptation of Shinji Ikari

by Boethiah



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: Canon - Manga, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Development, Emotional Baggage, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, I promise, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Romance is secondary, teeechnically asuka/shinji but that's by elimination, unless you're into shinji/kensuke which is w/e
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-16 02:39:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11244621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boethiah/pseuds/Boethiah
Summary: Shinji Ikari has one last thing to do before he grows up.Takes place post-manga.





	1. Comfortably Numb / Please don't forget how to love.

_You needn’t trouble him with this, you know. The burden of knowing…_

I know. But we owe it to him to do this.

 _He’s happy here. After all the suffering…he’s_ happy _here. Doesn’t he have the right to this, at least?_

That is not the pact you made with him. This is a false happiness, a fragile illusion. And as such, it cannot last.

_…I know._

Already cracks are beginning to show. I do not need your permission to act.

_I shall give it to you anyway. Do as you will – show him what I will not._

No. I refuse to break the illusion for him. I can, but I will not. He breaks it himself, or not at all.

_Yes._

You’ll make the right decision. Won’t you, Shinji?

* * *

 

 _Beep_.

Shinji slid the cup of noodles past the counter, sparing only a glance at the cashier before passing her a fistful of coins. Late-night ventures like these weren’t uncommon, now that he was in high school – he relished the few inches of independence granted to him.

The door swung open. Shinji brushed snow off his shoulders as his feet sank into wet earth, treading rough ground. It wasn’t as cold as it was the previous night, and he could see beginnings of gray road underneath white sheets.

He heard a jarring sound to his right and spun around. In the middle of the street was a pale-skinned, pale-haired girl, her red eyes blankly fixed on him.

Shinji blinked. The sound played again, softer this time, and _the girl wasn’t there anymore_. He didn’t feel any shock at it, and was at a loss as to why; was it a trick of the light? But he had imagined her so vividly…

He shrugged and went on his way, clutching the cup in his left hand.

* * *

 

“Say, Kensuke.” said Shinji, sitting on his bed. “Do you wonder what those crosses outside are?”

Kensuke got up. “Are you kidding me, man? _All the time_.” he said, in the voice he did whenever he was going to launch into a tirade.

“No-one knows _anything_ about them. Not even how they got there.” Kensuke continued. “They were just…there already, for as long as anyone can remember.”

Shinji stared at the ceiling. “Yeah, I know. Strange, isn’t it?”

“Wanna check them out with me this weekend or something?” Kensuke said, almost standing up. Shinji closed his eyes.

“Maybe. But let’s go to bed first – we’ve got class first thing in the morning tomorrow.” Shinji yawned.

Kensuke didn’t lie back down as Shinji did. Instead he peered outside the window for a good while, long after Shinji had fallen asleep.

* * *

 

Shinji looked up to see Hikari Horaki standing above him, leaning against the wall.

“You’re Kensuke Aida’s roommate, right?” she said, looking down at him.

“Yeah, I am. Why?”

“He didn’t show up for class this morning. Any news on that?”

Shinji bit his lip. He swore he knew where Kensuke had gone, but couldn’t seem to recall anything – he thought he’d bumped into his friend this noon, or talked to him on the way to school.

“No, I…no.” he said, looking slightly uneasy.

Hikari lifted an eyebrow. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

Shinji looked at his hands. “I haven’t seen him today. That’s all I know.” It wasn’t all he knew, but he didn’t know how to put how he felt into words…or at least, he didn’t want to.

 “Do you always try to hide the things you can’t cope with from everyone else?” came a voice that was neither his nor Hikari’s.

Shinji turned around. Nothing but empty seats behind him. The whispery, mild tone – it was familiar, somehow.

Hikari gave him a flat look. “I’ll ask again. Is there something wrong?”

“No, no, it’s nothing. It’s…nothing.” Shinji said, waving his hand in the air. The voice’s words bit into his skull again - he suppressed a wince.

“Well, I’m not covering for you when you get into trouble over this.” Hikari sighed. Shinji watched as she walked out of the classroom, leaving him alone again amid rows of empty seats.

Shinji groaned. He supposed he’d have to help the others look for Kensuke – he might get into trouble otherwise.

* * *

 

Shinji’s footsteps left deep tracks in the snow. The usual crowd was here, enjoying the same after-school walk he did almost every afternoon. He wasn’t here to do that, though, much to his irritation.

“Ugh, Kensuke’s probably just out roleplaying again.” Shinji rolled his eyes. He’d remembered when Kensuke had missed Biology class entirely to re-enact D-Day. In fairness, Shinji could barely remember anything from that class either – or _any_ of his other classes, now that he thought about it.

He decided to at least give it a token effort. “Kensuke! Kensuke, where are you?” he said. He was half-expecting the boy to sneak up and cover his mouth, whispering something about a “covert ops” mission.

“ _Kensukeeee_. I’ll get in a _loooot_ of trouble if you’re not back home by daaaawn…” Now that Shinji thought about it…now that he thought about it, a _lot_ of people were going missing recently. Not just kids. Adults, too. Were it anyone else, any other of Shinji’s friends, he might’ve gotten worried…but this was _Kensuke Aida_ , the boy famous for getting lost in flights of fancy.

Shinji rolled his eyes. “What a headache.”

While he wasn’t looking, a book collided with his foot. Its presumptive owner had stumbled on the ground a few feet from where he was standing. Grunting, he picked it up.

“Here you go, Sir - ” The slender fingers that took it gave Shinji pause. “ _Miss_. Sorry. Miss.”

“Thanks.” The girl’s voice was half-hearted, unfamiliar…yet he’d heard it before. He watched her arm in shock as she tucked it back into her back.

“And, uh…” she chuckled, flipping a red twin-tail. “…was it _really_ hard to tell?”

Shinji looked up at her face, blue eyes meeting blue eyes for what felt like the first time. The boy immediately felt his breath leave him, both because _no_ , it was _far_ from hard to tell that she was a Miss and that he swore, he’d _sworn_ he’d _seen_ her before…

“Um.” The girl tilted her head; Shinji couldn’t tell if she was amused or annoyed. “Is there something on my face?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a lot out of me to write.
> 
> There will be more! This is planned as three chapters with a tentative epilogue.


	2. Reluctantly Yours

Shinji was trying very, very hard to find something on her face. Honest to God, he was. He was only looking at her smooth, scarlet hair, long lashes and bright blue eyes to see if there was even a microscopic flaw – and turning up negative, over and over again. He was asked a question and it was rude not to answer; that was it. _Honest_.

“Hey, weren’t you that _creep_ who gawked at me at the train station the first time I came here?” said the red-haired girl, folding her arms beneath her breasts. Shinji cursed in silence at the slightly bemused smirk he met when his eyes traveled back upwards.

“Uh…were you the girl trying to get out of the train?” Shinji bit his lip, trying not to recall the warmth of her hand in his.

She shrugged. “Yeah, that was me.”

There was a long pause as Shinji tried desperately to not say something that would make him look stupid. Of course, it was the girl that said the first word.

“Well, thanks again, I guess.” she said.

Shinji let down his shoulders and gave her a warm, sincere smile. “You’re welcome, Asuka.”

“…How do you know my name?”

The poor schoolboy felt the air drop several hundred degrees.

“I…well…”

Asuka’s face fluctuated rapidly from calm to shock, before stabilizing into a slicing glare. “Are you _stalking_ me?” she said, walking towards the rapidly retreating Shinji. “Do you have _any_ idea who I am and what I’m capable of? What I can _do_ to you?”

Shinji nearly slid on a pebble in the snow. “No, it’s not like th – I just guessed – It was an accident, I swear! I’m sorry…”

“Just _what_ are you trying to pull here, Shinji?”

The two of them froze in their tracks. You could probably hear a pin drop in the ensuing silence.

“I…”

Asuka swiveled around. “This conversation’s over now.”

“Wait, Asuka – “

But she was already walking as far away from him as possible as fast as she could. “ _Bye_!” she said, giving him a quick wave.

* * *

Shinji rested his head on his pillow. He’d faced an exhausting evening of teachers and police officers trying to pry him open about Kensuke’s whereabouts. He’d told them everything he knew – that _no_ , he _didn’t_ know where Kensuke went, he’d looked for Kensuke and hadn’t turned up anything, and if Kensuke had disappeared _he’d_ be the last person to know why. It was the truth, but he’d repeated the same rote sentences so many times that it felt like a lie.

He wondered why he didn’t seem to care much about his friend’s disappearance. It wasn’t…it wasn’t apathy he felt. It was more like…he _knew_ in his blood where Kensuke had went, although where he could not say, and he knew that wherever Kensuke was, he was safe.

Shinji closed his eyes and nestled into the pillow. It was time to sleep.

Two hours passed. All Shinji could hear was the whirring of the overhead fan and the faint beating of his heart. He turned and stretched in the silent darkness, but his eyelids felt no heavier – in fact, they felt weightless as he opened and closed them.

He suddenly found himself fixated on the window. He couldn’t see or hear anything from it, he just felt pulled to it, like a magnet. Ignoring the feeling did nothing to stop it; he tried for another hour or so. Finally, he got up – _just for a few seconds, I promise_ , he told himself – and looked out the window, at the cross-shaped obelisks outside.

_Just for a few seconds. I promise._

* * *

Shinji worried about the absence of security he’d encountered on the way out. The gate wasn’t just unlocked, it _swung_ open to see him out. He held his shoulders against the night’s chill, dressed – perhaps unwisely – in his school uniform.

It wasn’t as cold as he thought it would be. Out here the snow grew thinner and thinner the farther you went from the school, until Shinji couldn’t even find a puddle. His feet tread towards the monuments in the distance; even at night, illuminated only by distant searchlights, the behemoths were impossible to miss.

He’d forgotten his phone on the way out, but as the crosses grew closer he swore he’d been walking for hours. Yet the sun did not rise from the horizon, the stars did not gleam any brighter from the sky. It was so dark out that he couldn’t even tell if there were clouds or not.

The road turned here. Shinji continued to walk forward, unobstructed – his first step off the road cracked open cold, sterile soil. Weeds bristled in the wind, and out here the breeze felt less like a cold caress and more like a spear through his side.

All at once, a surreal feeling overcame him. He felt like his arm was being stretched, twisted, bent at unnatural angles. Clinging to it, he tasted something metallic and watery in his mouth. He shut his eyes even as he closed the gap between himself and the fence. No matter how distant it was, the light stung his eyes, made something in his chest boil and sizzle.

Shinji felt a faint choking at his throat. He was gasping for air, and not from exhaustion; he’d felt no fatigue on the journey here, despite its length and his own isolation. It was more like something was pressing down on his throat, something invisible, with hands too strong to be human…and yet imbued with a malice that _couldn’t_ be mindless.

The barbed-wire fence was the only security he encountered on his way. There were faint lights he could make out from the back, but he couldn’t tell if they were the flashlights of security guards. It must’ve been abandoned long ago, but then who was taking care of the lights?

Shinji looked up at the relic. His breath rushed back into his lungs.

There he stood in the monolith’s shadow, looking up at the cross’s tip. The wind tossed into a gust, twisting and blowing and forming _voices_ , voices that said nothing but chanted incomprehensible syllables. All his instincts were screaming at him to run, to go back, to get out – but he couldn’t.

Shinji kicked up something light. Reaching up, he picked them and held them against the light.

“A pair of glasses…” he murmured, tilting the frames between his fingers. Could it be that –

The lights shut off just as thoughts were beginning to form. Shinji stumbled onto the ground and yelped, barely catching himself with his hands.

A faint red glow emanated behind him. Shinji froze.

Had he been caught? Shinji closed his eyes and waited for the officer to take him; when no arm came over his shoulder, he looked back.

What he saw made him turn around and crawl back, eyes bulging in horror.

Half-sunken into the earth was the face of an enormous, metallic monstrosity. The crimson light pulsed from between its jaws, painting the metal’s purple hue a reddish tinge. A horn shot out from between its eyes, hollow sockets illuminated only faintly by the glow – but the creature was alive, Shinji could tell, _breathing_ with a blood-red vigor that made him realize he was something very small stumbling across something much too big to understand.

“Dear God…” someone said, and Shinji couldn’t tell if it was his voice or the wind’s.

He didn’t notice himself scamper to his feet, and despite the fear did nothing to resist the urge that pulled him towards it. The brilliant glow _oozed_ off teeth white as porcelain, curving inwards at him. The beast’s mouth grew narrower and narrower as he went further inside. Whatever this thing was, he didn’t feel…he wasn’t afraid of it, he was – _he’d seen it before_.

And then the jaws clamped shut around him.

* * *

Shinji didn’t even have time to form a scream. When he opened his eyes, he was still whole – in a rather undignified state, perhaps, but still in one piece. Here it was darker than even the night outside. Shinji couldn’t see his hands in front of him, although he could feel them clasping in the darkness.

Here? Where was “here?” All he could remember was that awful monster’s head, and the red light, and its incisors closing in around him…

A stream of multicolored light danced in front of him, illuminating his face with its neon sheen. He could see himself now, but nothing else – there was nothing here but him and the strand. He took it in its hands and it dissipated for a second, before reforming around his palm.

Shinji’s steps echoed on cold, smooth ground. He followed where the stream led him, an unbroken, straight line, towards its end. Did it have an end? He didn’t know, but it was the only thing that he could cling to, the only thing preventing him from –

Whatever floor was beneath him disappeared abruptly. He screamed as he fell, the sound reverberating endlessly. He felt no turbulence, no resistance; just weightless, endless _falling_.

The stream rushed down to meet him. He reached out to grab it but it recoiled at his touch, circling and spinning and spinning and spinning and _spinning_ , growing wider and wider. Sparks shot from it and soon he found himself falling through constellations of lights, countless dots shooting past him.

Vague images danced in front of his eyes. Shade underneath branches. A cold, sterile laboratory, a warm hand on his shoulder, the scent of blood. A train shooting past him. He felt a strange, painless shedding of flesh and skin at his arm, like he was being reduced not to bone but shapes and lines and colors. He stretched over an endless canvas of stars, screaming without a sound, contracting and expanding and _blinking_ in and out of existence.

As he felt himself stretch past solidity, the pictures in his head grew clearer and clearer. The summer sunlight shining on him. A knife of raw light slicing open his head. Crystalline sheen flashing in the distance, followed by an unbearable heat and pressure at his chest. Razor-sharp ribbons of flesh cutting through his arm…then _anger_ , more anger than he’d ever felt.

But there was something else. A pale girl shrinking into the distance. A woman, beautiful but hurt, staggering through a long corridor. Another girl, a smile on her face, hair ringed like a brilliant halo of fire around her. An immense desk and a man’s pitiless gaze, his gloved hands clasped in front of his face.

Shinji felt as though he’d been drowning all his life, and he’d taken his first breath of air. All these images – all their faces had names, all those names he’d known, talked with, spent time with. He wanted to cry and scream at the same time. He hadn’t known for so long, _so long_ , but now he remembered…

_He remembered_.

* * *

Shinji didn’t land; he just opened his eyes and he was kneeling on the floor, head bowed, elbow sprawled on the floor.

The first thing he noticed after struggling to his feet was that he’d changed from his schoolboy uniform into a garish pink shirt and blue shorts. He kicked a foot and his slipper nearly fell off. Looking around and scanning the room, he realized where he was…no, he knew _exactly_ where he was.

“Misato…”

He turned around at the scent and sound of coffee pouring itself into a cup. Standing at the counter in a yellow shirt too big for her was Asuka Langley Sohryu, who responded to his surprised expression with an exasperated sigh.

“Kept me waiting long enough.” she said, leaning against the counter and holding up her mug.


	3. I (don't) need you. / Will you join me?

Shinji blinked. “Asuka?”

Asuka placed her mug on the counter. “Late again, huh? Typical.” she said, taking a step towards him.

His eyes widened. “Asuka, I remember what happened...”

“Of _course_ you remember what happened, moron!” Asuka lunged forward and pointed her finger at his chest. “The only reason you forgot is because you wanted to!”

A growing horror welled in Shinji’s stomach. “Because I...wanted to?”

“You really are clueless, aren't you? You locked yourself in this world and trapped the _rest_ of us in here with you!”

Shinji took a few steps backward, clutching his forehead. He looked up at Asuka.

“I don't know what...I don’t understand what you’re saying! Asuka, nothing you’re saying makes any sense!” he said, waving his hand.

Asuka grimaced. “You understand perfectly, idiot! _We’re still in here_!”

Shinji’s pupils contracted into dots.

_The place where you can’t tell where you end and everyone begins._

_The place where there is no sadness, no misunderstanding, no suffering._

_Human Instrumentality._

_He was still in the sea._ They _were still in the sea._

 _And it was all_ his _doing._

Asuka tapped her foot. Shinji looked at the artificial floor, thinking about what he’d done.

“...I just wanted a world where we could all be happy.” he said, weakly.

“No, you didn't. You just wanted a world where _you'd_ be happy, and you didn't care if everyone else was forced to play along. Talk about _spoiled_!”

Shinji’s eyes remained fixed on the floor. No tears came forth, just long, protracted silence.

“Well.” Asuka’s voice was warmer now. “The fact that we’re having this conversation _at all_ means you aren’t _completely_ selfish. There’s still a chance for you to end this. The door’s always open; you can leave this lie behind whenever you want.”

Shinji wanted to reach out to stop her as she walked past him and reached for the door, but couldn’t summon the will to lift his feet.

“I'm sorry, Shinji. But you'll need to solve this on your own.” Asuka turned back, opening the door. A blinding light swallowed Shinji’s vision.

Through the glare, he could only hear her voice. “I can show you the way out, but you need to step out yourself. And only _you_ can do that.”

The door shut and the light blinked out.

Shinji stood alone, head bowed. Above him, the electric fan whirred ceaselessly.

“You humans really are curious beings.” said a calm, droning voice. “So much care, veiled under so much anger…”

Shinji stumbled to the side. The other boy caught him before he could fall – his hand was cold to the touch.

“Kaworu?”

The white-haired boy smiled at him. “I no longer answer to that name, but yes. Hello, Shinji.”

“Kaworu…thank God, finally. Can you tell me what’s going on here?”

“I think that the Second Child has more than adequately described the scenario to you.” said Rei, appearing next to Shinji.

“Rei! I…”

Kaworu continued, uninterrupted. “You are within the Dirac Sea, your soul bereft of its physical body. Everything you have experienced after your battle with the Mass Production EVAs is a delusion.”

“What? Kaworu, you’re not making any sense!”

“A delusion you designed.” Rei added. “With the unwitting aid of the rest of humanity, of course.”

Something dawned upon the boy.

“I…trapped everyone else here?” he said, in a lower, calmer voice.

“Yes.” the two said in unison.

Shinji had a sudden thought he felt sick just thinking.

"So, what happens if I don’t open the door?" he said, voice shaking.

Kaworu gave Shinji a smile, as if he expected the boy to say that. "You wake back up in your room, you don't remember anything and you live in the world you want to live in."

Shinji turned to Kaworu. "But – but what about Asuka? Or Kensuke?” he said as he turned back to Rei.

"They've already gone to the world you left behind." Kaworu said.

"You could create new ones, if you'd like." said Rei. "New constructs in their image and likeness."

"But they'd be imitations." Kaworu smiled. "Like we are.”

Shinji found himself in the Dummy Plug room again. In Dr. Akagi’s stead, there was Rei again, standing motionless while holding the lever.

“ _Rei_!” Shinji said, breaking into a sprint.

“Just dolls.” Rei said, unflinching. She pulled the lever down before he could push her and Shinji shut his eyes, waiting for that awful flushing again…

A tunneling sound forced his eyes open. He was in EVA-01, descending to Terminal Dogma with Kaworu’s frail body in his grasp.

"Or did you think I came back, after what you did to me?"

"Kaworu! Kaworu, _no_! I didn't – “

The white-haired boy smiled. "I don't blame you for it. I wanted you to do it, remember?"

" _Kaworu_!"

"And it's not like I was the only one, was I?"

Shinji felt dull metal in his mouth. He looked down in horror - EVA-04's entry plug was crushed, blood and LCL dripping down his teeth.

"Oh God, make it stop! Please, just make it stop, dammit! I don't want to see this!"

"Oh, but you _do_!" Kaworu's voice remained as calm and placid as he remembered. "You want to see and hear all of this. If you didn't, you wouldn't. In this world, Shinji Ikari is God."

Rei was at his side once more. "You just put your words in the mouths of others, because you don't want to confront yourself. Because you're afraid of what you yourself might say."

"I don't want to be here anymore! Let me _out_! Just let me – "

Everything went red. Shinji’s next words were a scream, an act of defiance. A _demand_.

“Just let me _OUT_!”

The lights went off.

"I'm scared of going back." he said, in what was barely a whisper.

From somewhere above, a spotlight shone down on him.

"And why is that?" said Rei.

"I don't want to face my father anymore."

"I find it unlikely that Gendo Ikari will be able to come back." Kaworu folded his arms beside him. "And even if he does..."

"He said he never loved me. And why would he? No-one does."

"What are you, stupid?"

Shinji felt his seat disappear under his legs. Arms pinned him against a metal fence.

"Can't you see that so many people have given so much to help you?" Misato flashed him a weak smile, the pin of a grenade dropping from her mouth.

"Misato...are you..."

"I'm sorry, Shinji. I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep my promise to you. But can you..."

"Misato! Are you –"

"Can you at least keep yours to me? I know it's too much to ask..."

"No, it's not!"

Shinji turned around. Asuka was standing behind him again.

"He needs to do it, and he knows that! Because he's not doing it for anybody…"

"...other than himself." Rei stood above the kneeling boy. "Only _he_ can take that step."

"It isn't just Father I'm scared of. I killed Touji..."

"Dammit, Ikari!"

Shinji reeled back from a punch to his face. He struggled up, sprawled on his schoolyard’s warm soil. Touji towered above him.

"If you want to talk to Kensuke and Hikari, _talk to them_!" Touji rubbed his fist from where he had hit Shinji.

"They don't blame you." Shinji felt the sheen of a phone in his hands; it was as heavy as a brick. Kensuke's voice was on the other end. " _You_ were the one that cut them off!"

He turned to face the ruined city. Kaworu stood beside him.

"But then Rei will..."

"Sometimes people leave our lives. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they do not.” Rei said, her expression placid.

Shinji was standing on a cold, tiled floor, beneath a gargantuan cross. At his feet was his father, lying in a pool of his own blood.

“Whether you accept that part or not is up to you.” the older Ikari said, choking to form words through the gash in his throat.

“Father…”

Everything went dark. Shinji turned around and faced Rei, her skin giving off a faint fluorescent glow.

“Rei! I…”

Rei gave him something approximating a smile. “It’s okay, Ikari. I wanted this.”

"You _will_ feel pain, won't you?" Kaworu smiled, stepping at his side. "That part's inevitable."

"Asuka is –"

"Now you're just making excuses!" Asuka's voice chimed in. "She's hurting too, you know that? You think staying here's gonna make _that_ any better?"

"I..."

"You really think that wallowing in self-hatred and using others to feed your demons is a better alternative?"

“I don’t know anymore. I…”

Shinji took two long, deep breaths.

“…No. I know what I want to do.” His voice did not waver this time.

He was back in Misato’s room again, standing in front of the door. Kaworu and Rei stood a few feet behind him.

“Then make your decision.” Rei said. Shinji looked back at the two.

Kaworu just smiled back. “I know you’ll make the right choice.”

Shinji faced forward, steeled himself –

– and flung open the door. 

* * *

In a different place, Asuka heard a scream from somewhere along the beach.

Shinji coughed out LCL and struggled to his feet. He felt a chill against his wet skin and shuddered against the fading night sky. The next thing he felt were hands wrapping a piece of cloth around him.

He looked up, rubbing his eyes.

Even cloaked in rags and stained with dust, she was beautiful. Shinji felt his breath grow short, looking into her eyes. Her tousled red hair fell messily around her face and she gave him a weak smile.

Asuka leaned back. "I'm sorry I was so hard on you back there. Leaving that place, it must've felt like..."

"Like having your arm ripped off." Shinji smiled back, words squirming out of his throat.

Asuka rubbed her shoulder. “Yeah.”

The two of them looked in each other’s eyes, contemplating in silence everything that had happened until that point. The Angels, the endless drills, NERV, SEELE…and finally, this. And yet here they stood through it all, despite themselves.

"Come on." Asuka said, stretching her hand out towards Shinji. “Everyone else is waiting for us.”

The first thing the rising sun’s light shone upon were two barefoot children walking together hand in hand, down the horizon and into an unknown world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fin.
> 
> This was extremely exhausting to write, but I'm glad I did.


End file.
